The last address on the Chapman water system, and the road traffic is sent down when Highway 101 closes at this junction.
Where Mercer Road sits, and the other places we attend
around Halfmoon Bay. Every name on the map is a link.
The road where the pipe ends
Mercer Road runs off Highway 101 at the north end of the Redrooffs loop, at the Secret Cove end. Its addresses run from 10163, the Secret Cove Landing strata, to at least 10515, a waterfront estate marketed by Colliers. The postal codes are V0N 1Y2 and V7Z 1B7. Road routing on 12 September 2026 gave 15.8 kilometres and 24 minutes from Mercer Road to Sechelt Hospital, with the RCMP detachment on Teredo Street roughly two minutes further.
One sentence in the Halfmoon Bay official community plan explains why this short road matters more than its length suggests. The regional district's Chapman water system, Bylaw 675 says, serves "along both Redrooffs Road and the Sunshine Coast Highway through to Mercer Road" (page 45). Everything beyond is on "independently operated wells and water licenses properties located beyond the service area". Mercer Road is the end of the pipe.
Two sides of one boundary, two different winters
A house on the serviced side of that line has a meter, a curb stop and a connection the regional district maintains to the property line. When supply fails there, it fails publicly. In November 2021 road erosion compromised a main in the Redrooffs area, water was shut off, and a boil-water advisory ran for five days. When supply is short, the restrictions are public too: Chapman serves about 90 per cent of the population of the lower Sunshine Coast, from Halfmoon Bay to West Howe Sound, and it reached Stage 4 on 10 August 2021, on 31 August 2022 and on 8 September 2023. The 2022 restrictions were not lifted until 14 December, after 103 days at Stage 4. In 2024 it never went past Stage 2, and in 2026 Stage 2 began on 5 June and ended on 9 September.
A house on the other side of the line has none of that. It has a well, a pump, a pressure tank and a power supply, and no utility watching any of them. A pump that keeps running on a broken line will empty a well. A pump house that loses heat in January will freeze. Neither event generates a notice, a bill or a phone call. For an owner whose property is near this boundary, the first thing worth establishing is which side of it the house actually sits on, because the correct winter procedure is different on each side.
The largest strata in the plan area is at 10163
Secret Cove Landing at 10163 Mercer Road was the Jolly Roger Inn before it was converted into a strata of townhouses and condominium units; units 203, 205, 206, 302 and 505 all appear in listings. It is the largest multi-family building in the Halfmoon Bay plan area. The community plan notes that its multi-family designation "applies primarily to properties currently containing multi-family buildings" (page 37), which is to say the district is describing what is already there rather than planning more of it.
A converted resort produces a particular ownership pattern: one building holding a high concentration of part-time owners, many absent in the same months. Shared walls, plumbing stacks and roofs mean a failure in one empty unit reaches occupied ones. Further along the road, at the 10500 block, the properties are the opposite case: waterfront acreage and estate houses on large single lots.
The junction here closes the highway, and then carries the detour
On 3 July 2024 at 3:32 p.m. two vehicles collided head on at Highway 101 and Mercer Road. Both drivers were the sole occupants of their vehicles, both were seriously injured, and both required removal using the Jaws of Life. Five ambulances attended. Both were airlifted to Vancouver and were still in critical condition on 8 July. A fire department member at the scene was treated and released from Sechelt hospital. The highway was stopped in both directions for several hours, and from about 5:30 p.m. traffic was routed around the site using Mercer Road. The road is both the crash site and the way around the crash.
Mercer Road was also the first proposed location for a 63-metre Telus tower. After objections the proposal was moved and reduced to a 31-metre monopole at 10264 Sunshine Coast Highway, near Secret Cove, and the regional district granted land-use concurrence in May 2021.
What a check on Mercer Road covers
The regional district water connection, meter box and interior shut-off on serviced lots
The well head, pump, pressure tank and pump house heat on lots beyond the service line
Heat on and holding, or the plumbing drained and the supply isolated at the right valve
For strata units: the unit's own shut-off, the ceiling below any unit above, and the common hallway for water marks
Doors, windows, storage lockers, decks and any boat or trailer parked on the lot
Waterfront stairs, railings and retaining walls at the 10500 block after a southeast blow
Roof, gutters and downspouts, and the trees standing over the house and the service drop
A dated photo record of the unit or the house, filed that day
Nearly all household policies fix a maximum interval for inspecting an unoccupied dwelling in the heating season, four days in a row being the usual number, and expect a competent person to carry it out, unless the water is turned off and the system drained. Strata policies and unit-owner policies can differ from each other, so read both.
What it costs
A scheduled check at Mercer Road is
$55 a visit, plus
$10 travel. The travel charge is the same
everywhere between Gibsons and Egmont. There is no minimum term and no joining fee.
See the full price list.
Where these facts come from
Every figure, date and quotation on this page was taken from one of these. They are
listed so you can read them yourself.
